On Saturday, March 9, a collaboration between the We Wai Kai Nation and the Water Security Team of Quadra Island Climate Action Network (Quadra ICAN) presented an update of their work over the past year. The presentation was entitled “Water Systems of Quadra Island: Preparing For our Future”.
Their work is currently embodied in three major projects:
Editor’s note: The well monitoring currently underway Quadra Island is a model of how this could be done on Cortes.
A joint We Wai Kai/ ICAN Water Security team has been monitoring Quadra Island wells for the past month as part of a much larger project to calculate the island’s water budget.
“At the moment 13 wells are being monitored, and another three or four will be added from Cape Mudge. So there will probably be 17 deeper wells and Eileen McKay, particularly, has been saying for a while that we need to add shallow wells. We’ll be doing that hopefully this year,” explained Nick Sargent, a former professional hydrologist who is overseeing the well monitoring.
Continue reading Joint We Wai Kai/ ICAN Team Monitoring Quadra Island Wells
ICAN’s water security team and the We Wai Kai First Nation have embarked upon an exploration of Quadra Island’s water systems.
While this is a Quadra study, everything they are doing is applicable to Cortes and every other British Columbian island where there is a sizeable population. They are offering a model of how we can prepare for the future.
“The project started a number of years ago, really centered on the concerns of local people on Quadra about the nature of their water supply. People were really worried about what was going to happen with both climate change, whether it’s going to be getting hotter (particularly in the summers) and with development. Every new person that moves on to the island usually sinks a well. If they sink a well, they’re pulling quite a bit of water out of the aquifer. We wanted to know, would the aquifer actually meet our needs? Also, what needs does the environment have? And what will happen when things like climate change influences the availability of water,” explained Colin Chapman, who, together with his partner Claire Hemingway, is a key leader in this project.
Continue reading Studying The Water Budget For Quadra Island; a model for the futureEditor’s note: In addition to water security becoming an important issue on both Cortes and Quadra Islands, Cortes Currents may have FM radio listeners in Merville. There are reports of drivers listening to 89.5M while driving the Island Highway (19A) north of Courtenay. Cortes Radio’s coverage map shows some of the areas surrounding Merville (Black Creek, pockets of Comox and Cumberland) within its listening area.
By Madeline Dunnett, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A Merville man is asking the Supreme Court of B.C. to strike down the Comox Valley Regional District’s decision to classify bulk water sales as a permitted home business.
Bruce Gibbons, founder of Merville Water Guardians, filed the petition for judicial review in September. The review is scheduled to be heard in court in January 2024.
Continue reading Merville water fight heads to court
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As a landscape architect specializing in wetland restoration, Bernie Amell knows how water moves across the landscape.
However, he has had a crash course in drought after Amell and his wife moved to their Quadra Island agricultural acreage on B.C.’s so-called “Wet Coast” three years ago.
“We arrived in 2021, in the ‘heat dome’ summer, and the shallow well dried up,” said Amell, a member of Quadra Island’s Climate Action Network (I-CAN).
Continue reading Small island community launches big effort to develop water security
